Couple in UAE hear ramadan prayers for the first time in over 40 years

Dubai: Indian couple residing in UAE, Rubina Sadath and her husband Sadath Husain Kola, both in their 40’s, were delighted to hear the Ramadan prayers for the very first time in their lives.  Both Rubina and Sadath cannot speak or hear since birth. Both are self-taught accounts professionals and they have their regular day jobs.  Till a day earlier, they couldn’t hear anything, no music, no sounds and now their lives have completely transformed with the right set of hearing aids, that are as small as the regular earphone plugs.

Both Rubina and Husain have congenital bilateral profound sensory neural hearing loss and were relying on lip reading and mostly written communication to interact with people. They communicate in sign language between themselves. Starkey® Hearing Technologies undertook this initiative in support of the year of tolerance and May being recognised globally as the month of hearing.

“I am delighted and happy for my husband and me as we can now hear clearly for the very first time. More importantly we can hear our names being called by others and the surrounding sounds. This is the best gift that we could have asked for during this Holy month of Ramadan and we are able to hear the prayers being recited. This is something really new that we have never experienced before in our lives.  We are extremely happy and are looking forward to this new dimension that will help us to lead a more fulfilling life,” stated Rubina.

Rubina’s brother and sister also suffer from the same challenge as her.  She has a severe to profound sensory neural hearing loss, since birth. These types of hearing loss cannot be cured with medications or any kind of surgery, unless it is for implanting a hearing device, such as the cochlear implant. Her family managed to provide some speech therapy when she was a little kid, and put her in a school where she could learn to read and write to continue her learning journey. Hussain has a bilateral profound hearing loss and he has the same type of hearing loss as Rubina.

“We are really happy to bring about a change in the lives of Rubina and Hussain. When you suffer from hearing loss it doesn’t just affect your hearing, but your general health as well. The key challenge is that today people who are suffering from hearing issues don’t go to get themselves diagnosed until it becomes a serious challenge. As part of our CSR campaign we are aiming to educate people who are suffering from mild or partial hearing loss to visit an ENT specialist or an audiologist. It is important to diagnose the condition during the earlier stages. Life changes completely when you start to hear better and thereby lead a fulfilling life,” said Giscard Bechara, Director of Starkey MEA FZCO.

Close to 16 million people in the Middle East suffer from disabling hearing loss.  This condition may result from genetic causes, complications at birth, certain infectious diseases, chronic ear infections, the use of particular drugs, exposure to excessive noise, and ageing. At Starkey we believe that hearing health is essential to overall health and wellness. Unfortunately, unlike any other health condition hearing disabilities are left untreated till the person loses his complete sense of hearing in most cases.

Today, a total of 260 athletes from across 67 countries are able to hear clearly for the very first time in their lives, through the hearing aids provided by Starkey Hearing Technologies during the Special Olympics that was held in Abu Dhabi earlier this year. Some of these athletes had partial hearing loss which was then completely rectified. Around 478 hearing aids were fitted on these athletes and out of these 54% of them were male athletes. ‘Healthy Hearing’ program provided comprehensive hearing screenings, follow-up recommendations, and education on the importance of regular ear and hearing screenings. 

“These hearing related challenges are ranked third behind arthritis and hypertension for adults aged 75 and older, hearing loss is one of the most common age-related disabilities today. Another upcoming challenge is that, 1.1 billion young people (aged between 12–35 years) are at a risk of hearing loss due to exposure to noise in recreational settings. It is estimated that by 2050 over 900 million people will have disabling hearing loss,” concluded Giscard.

Starkey will also be participating at the ‘AccessAbilities Expo’ that takes place in UAE in November this year, which is the region's dedicated event, that aims to bring the world's latest assistive technology products with the goal of enhancing lives of more than 50 million people in the region having disabilities.

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About Starkey Hearing Technologies:
Starkey Hearing Technologies is a privately held, global hearing technology company headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Founded by Bill Austin in 1967, Starkey is known for its innovative design, development and distribution of comprehensive digital hearing systems. Led today by President Brandon Sawalich, Starkey is the only American-owned and operated provider of hearing technologies. The company has more than 6,000 employees, operates 25+ facilities and does business in more than 100 markets worldwide. For more information, visit www.starkey.com. 

Media contact:
Prem A. Ramachandran
Managing Director| White Water Public Relations
GSM:0097150-4537253,
Box 18936, Dubai, UAE
Email: prem@whitewaterpr.com,
www.whitewaterpr.com 

© Press Release 2019